The present invention has to do with a means of acquiring and using heat that is formed in a different way than as a result of combustion. More immediately, the invention has to do with a method and a device for heating a liquid by means of processing it with the aid of mechanical effects.
From the current state of technology we are broadly familiar with the capabilities for heating a liquid as a result of the unavoidable or concomitant mechanical effects on it of such forces as, specifically, the forces of friction during contact with a surrounding environment, the forces of internal friction during agitation of a stream of liquid, and the forces arising during hydraulic impacts and cavitation. The energy that is expended during these processes on heating a liquid is viewed as a natural energy loss.
The effect of heating a liquid as a result of the deliberate--though this may not be the primary purpose--effects on it of mechanical vibrations in the sonic or ultraonic range is also widely known in technology. And in this particular case the energy that is expended in heating the liquid is traditionally viewed as unavoidable energy losses. Particularly well-known from the current state of technology /V. I. Bigler et al., "The Dispersal Of Various Materials In A Device Of The Hydraulic Siren Type," in the collection of scientific studies No. 90 of the Moscow Institute for Steel and Alloys "Application Of Ultrasonic Waves In Metallurgy," the "Metallurgiya" Publishing House, 1977, p. 73 . . . 76/ is the effect of rapid heating of a liquid utilizing a device of the so-called hydrodynamic siren type. This device contains a rotating wheel having a cavity with a feeding or conveying aperture for supplying the liquid and a series of outlet apertures that are uniformly distributed along the periphery and that are installed in its peripheral wall with a conical external surface, and a stator having a cavity with an outlet aperture for expelling the liquid and a series of inlet apertures that are uniformly distributed along the periphery and that are installed in its wall, which latter is adjacent at a small distance to the peripheral wall of the rotating wheel, in which both the series of apertures of the rotating wheel and the series of apertures of the stator are arranged on a plane of the revolution [of the wheel]. When the wheel is rotating, the liquid flowing out from the outlet apertures of the rotating wheel and toward the inlet aperture of the stator is subject to the effect of induced mechanical vibrations of a defined frequency, depending upon the rate of revolution of the rotating wheel and upon the number of its outlet apertures. In the given case, the activation of these vibrations in the liquid is only designed to disperse the material that is contained in the liquid. Nonetheless, the authors noted the fact of an abnormally rapid heating of the liquid. They explained this rapid heating by an increase in the hydraulic resistance during the run-over or overflow of the liquid from the cavity of the rotating wheel into the cavity of the stator. In the case at hand, however, the authors did not provide an explanation for this phenomenon in purely quantitative terms.
Also well-known at the current level of technology /International Patent Registration No. PCT/RU92/00194 of 1992/ is a method of heating a liquid by means of processing it by means of mechanical vibrations. This method involves the injection of the liquid to be processed into the cavity of a revolving rotating wheel; bringing the liquid to revolve along with the rotating wheel; the expulsion of the liquid from the cavity of the rotating wheel through a series of outlet apertures on its peripheral cylindrical surface; the injection of the liquid into a cavity of the stator through at least one inlet aperture in the concentric surface of the stator lying as close as possible to the peripheral cylindrical surface of the rotating wheel; during which there occur periodic abrupt interruptions in the flow of the liquid that serve to activate or stimulate mechanical vibrations in the liquid. As a result of such processing, the liquid that is arriving in the cavity of the stator, as established by the authors, is heated to a higher degree than could be explained by the aggregate or overall hydraulic losses. However, this effect of an abnormal heating of a liquid, which in principle was merely detected, was neither sufficient not stable enough to be used in practical applications with assured success. The reason for that may reside in the incorrect selection of the parameters of the process, and specifically in the incorrect selection of the rate of revolution of the rotating wheel and of its interdependence upon the geometrical dimensions and the number of the outlet apertures of the rotating wheel.
Taking into account the preceding, the author of the present invention earlier worked out an improved method and device for heating a liquid in accord with the patent application U.S.A. Ser. No. 08/218,620 of March, 1994. The method in accord with this patent application includes supplying a liquid to be processed into the cavity of a revolving rotating wheel; the bringing of the liquid undergoing processing to revolve along with the rotating wheel; the expulsion of the liquid from the cavity of the rotating wheel through a series of outlet apertures on its peripheral cylindrical surface; the injection of the liquid into the cavity of the stator through at least one inlet aperture on the concentric surface of the stator lying as close as possible to the peripheral cylindrical surface of the rotating wheel; during which there occurs periodic abrupt interruptions in the flow of the liquid that stimulate mechanical vibrations in it. According to available information, this represented the first time an attempt was made to express the preferred dependence between the linear velocity of the liquid on the periphery of a specified radius and this radius in mathematical terms, in the form of empirical relationship EQU RV.sup.2 =253.264(m.sup.3 /s.sup.2).
The device for implementing the described method for heating a liquid contains a rotor, including a shaft located in bearings; a rotating wheel that is connected to the shaft and made in the form of a disk with a peripheral annular wall having cylindrical exterior and interior surfaces in which are located a series of outlet apertures for passing the liquid, which outlet apertures are uniformly arranged along the periphery; a stator that contains the rotating wheel as it revolves or spins and that has an inlet aperture for feeding in the liquid and an outlet aperture for expelling the liquid, and two concentric walls that from both sides come as close as possible to the peripheral annular wall of the rotating wheel; in both concentric walls of the stator are located at least one aperture for the passing of the liquid, which aperture is lying on a plane with the positioning of the series of apertures of the rotating wheel.
The described method and device even though they assure an increase in the temperature of the liquid to a higher degree than the temperature that can be achieved by means of hydraulic loss, the method and the device for heating of a liquid described above still do not make it possible to realize the inventor's scheme in a reliable and practical way with the greatest possible efficiency. The reason for that may be said to lie in the absence of sufficient specificity in assigning the position of the circumference of the radius R, in the sense that the quantity RV.sup.2 was given concurrently and unambiguously, and also in the fact that there is virtually no opportunity here for the liquid that is leaving the rotating wheel to swirl about freely.